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3% 
It would be well to note that the cultivation of the cow pea enters more 
largely into the system of farming in this than any other southern State. 
In this I think the southern farmers have a most valuable plant, for by its 
judicious use in a proper system of rotation, the land.can be rapidly reno- 
vated and at small expense. In this regard the North Carolina farms are far 
in advance. A favorite method with some very successful farmers is to sow last 
year’s corn stubble in peas; when ripe put on hogs to harvest them, and then 
plough under vines and sow wheat. By this means the land is improved, and 
increased crops are the result. 
SOUTH CAROLINA. 
Being well situated for the cultivation of rice and cotton, and having a sur- 
plus of labor, this State has devoted its agriculture to the cultivation of these 
two merchantable products, to the neglect of all her other agricultural resources, 
In proportion to area she has but little more poor soil than ,North Carolina, 
while in her rice.lands and sea islands she has much that is superior. 
Cotton.—The census shows tbat there was grown, as reported, 353,412 bales ; 
how much of this was sea island and how much upland does not appear, while 
the quantity planted is in excess of last year. It is safe to estimate that not 
over one-half of the land planted in 1859 and 1860 is now being worked, while 
through the region known as ‘“Sherman’s track,” the same causes which com- 
pelled the abandonment of fields after they had been planted and partially 
worked in North Carolina has produced like results, only to a larger extent 
here. Some have been compelled to abandon entirely and at once, while others 
have discharged their hands and teams, and worked with their families in order 
to make some corn and a little cotton to save them-from future starvation. 
While much relief has come to many of these people, but a small portion 
have been relieved, from the impossibility of getting conveyance to find the suf- 
fering or to send relief when found. If the history of the past and present 
suffering of these people in the Carolinas, Georgia, portions of Alabama, and 
Mississippi is ever fully written, an amount of human suffering will be dis- 
closed that has had no parallel in the Union. Even if the season be most propi- 
tious, there will yet be, until another planting and another harvest, untold mis- 
ery and starvation. 
It will hardly be credited that whole families have had no meat for weeks; 
that they have had but one meal a day, and that of pounded corn. Often they have 
denied themselves corn, that the sick could be fed, and have substituted roots 
and herbs gathered from the fields and woods. In one instance a husband had 
travelled some sixty miles to a relative, who had loaned him a cow then in milk, 
and there was joy in that family when the cow came. They had tasted no 
food for weeks but roots and herbs, and were weak and emaciated, but the milk 
restored their vigor. The man also brought a small parcel of seed-corn, and 
the cow was harnessed to the plough and a small patch of land was prepared 
for a future crop. This family consisted of father, mother, and five children. 
To the question, “ Why don’t you work?” “O, sir, tell us where we can get 
even a peck of corn or a pound of pork, and we will most gladly work, but 
everybody is like we are.” And this is the condition of thousands. 
- Corn.—More has been planted this year than last. In many instances but 
little cotton is planted, and the energies of the farm devoted to corn. Yet they 
are all so badly in debt that an effort is made to grow all the cotton possible. 
In the census the corn crop is put down at 15,065,606 bushels. It will fall far 
below that this year. I doubt if it reaches half. To furnish any permanent 
relief it should be double. ‘The plant is well cultivated and looks promising. 
Wheat.—Only 1,285,631 bushels are reported by the census for this State. 
For the lack of seed and labor but a small breadth was sown last year; it is 
